


Research and Development

by Tafka



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: For Science!, Gen, M.I.R.R.O.R.-verse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-28
Updated: 2013-06-28
Packaged: 2017-12-16 12:19:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/861961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tafka/pseuds/Tafka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Janet Van Dyne is a millionaire heiress fashionista who only got her job in research and development because it is her father's company.  Now she has to work harder than anyone else to prove she deserves her place, and she has to do it backwards, in high heels.  The heels are fabulous, though.</p>
<p>-A re-imagining of the Wasp's origin story, updated and adapted for the MCU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Research and Development

Jan tried to push her way through the throng around Reed Richards' demonstration booth, but the old men with their horribly outdated pinstriped suits stood shoulder to shoulder, blocking her view of the biodegradable matter converter that promised to revolutionize waste management and eliminate the need for landfill. It was exactly the kind of forward-thinking idea that Jan wanted Van Dyne Industries to fund, if only she could get a chance to see it. 

She stalked around the outside of the crowd and flinched as a wasp that had somehow gotten into the convention center came too close to her face. She was irritated with everything, from the other investors who constantly brushed her aside to her Minolo Blahnik heels, which were completely on trend, but had been a poor choice for walking around the expansive demonstration hall. She dodged the wasp again and tried to ease between a portly gentleman in a cheap suit and a pillar. Mentally, she rolled her eyes at him, if he couldn't afford to spend money on a good tailor, how could he expect to fund the most important scientific breakthrough since waterproof mascara? Stymied at every turn, Jan turned her attention more fully to the annoying insect, fully intending to take out her frustrations by swatting it out of the sky. But, with one hand raised in interrupted violence, she froze. 

There was a fine thread of bright pink nylon fastened to the wasp somehow, and it led back to the nearly abandoned demonstration booth behind her. She could think of no possible reason someone would bring a pet wasp to an emerging technologies expo, until the small creature landed on her still outstretched palm. Its wings shimmered and its gleaming abdomen twitched as it crept down her lifeline. Jan could now see that the thread was tied neatly in a half-bow to one of the creature's back legs, and she could also see the reason it was brought here. It had, strapped to its thorax, what appeared to be a tiny, metal backpack, with even tinier silver threads that extended to embed in the wasp's skull. The threads jerked slightly, and the insect began to weave back and forth across her palm as if it was drunk. Jan was enraptured, only looking up from it when it suddenly took off and flew back towards the table it was attached to.

She finally turned her attention to the display booth, and the large sign at the top, which read, “Dr. Henry Pym, Entomology/Robotics.” She mentally winced at the use of Impact font, and the fact that it had obviously been pieced together from pages that came out of an office copier. The entire look of the booth screamed fourth-grade science fair, with a few colorless posters of insect anatomy placed behind tiny plastic cages, and even a few carefully labeled three-ring binders arranged on the table. The only one at the display was a tall man who was hunched over what looked to be the remote control for a toy car, and was beaming at her quite manically.

It began to dawn on her what had just happened, but her brain wouldn't let her believe it. Instead she walked over to stand in front of the man, and, after a moment of awkward silence in which he did not launch into the expected pitch about his invention, she asked, “What is it?”

He looked vaguely surprised at her question, as though he thought it obvious, but recovered quickly, “Oh, it's Radumeris tasmaniensis Saussure... a yellow flower wasp. They're from Australia.” She continued to look at him expectantly. “This one's male, though, you don't have to worry about him stinging you.” He laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head. Jan raised her eyebrows. “Well obviously he's a male,” continued the man quickly, “the females, of course, are wingless, and also much smaller... not that I thought you didn't already know that--”

Jan chose to interrupt at this point, “I knew it was a wasp. I was asking what the device on its back was.” She looked pointedly at the little creature, which was cleaning its antennae while perched on a small plastic platform next to a sign that read, “Biobiotic Control”

The man was immediately flustered, and turned a rather attractive shade of pink while he stammered for a moment before launching into a string of technical jargon. She interrupted him again, “You created a remote-control cyborg insect?”

“Um, yes. Well, 'cyborg' isn't really... but yes, I did.”

Jan gaped at him. It was impressive, the most impressive thing she had seen all day, even better than Tilda Johnson's manipulation of wolf pheromones. Jan sized up the man again. Now that he was standing up straighter, he was towering over her, but she was distracted by the fact that he was wearing what must be the worst suit out of all the horrible suits at the convention. It was an unflattering brown color, threadbare at the elbows, saggy at the waist, and it appeared to be made for someone at least three inches shorter than him. He was at once extremely awkward-looking, and extremely attractive. However, there were many more important things to think about, “It is amazing, truly, but what are the practical applications?”

“Uh, um, well...” These three seemed to be his favorite words, “Um, there's not really any direct use, at the moment. Edgar-- the test subject E, I mean-- is mostly a proof of concept, that the trajectory of a living being can be influenced by external electrical impulses. With more funding I believe I could create a harness through which more of the insect's actions could be controlled remotely.”

“But to what end?” she challenged him, “how does an army of cyborg wasps benefit humanity?” Or Van Dyne Industries' pocketbooks, she thought privately. She didn't wish to be having such mercenary thoughts, but there was no way for her to convince the board of directors to fund any project they couldn't see immediate profit in. And if she went to them with the explanation that this Hank Pym was working on something that was “way cool” and “very exciting” she would be re-branded as the spoiled little girl who only had her job because it was her father's company. She couldn't risk tarnishing her image as a shrewd investor with a gift for selecting only the most promising projects. 

She tuned Dr. Pym out as he picked up the remote control again to demonstrate how the wasp's natural dexterity could be harnessed by his device, and possibly the controlled insect could be used to manipulate objects that were too tiny for human hands and in spaces too small for current generation robots. She had already figured all that out, in addition to the thought that small cameras mounted to the wasp's head would turn it into the perfect spy. With further development, the technology might be able to be used on higher orders of animals. Perhaps a remote-controlled frog? Or a tiger? If she could think of a use for an RC shark that didn't make her seem like a cackling pulp villain, she would mention something.

“Is there anything else?”

“Um, what?”

She sighed. “I like this.” She waved her hand absently at the leashed wasp, “I want to see what else you have.”

“Oh! Yes, yes of course!” He was a flurry of motion, putting down the controller and rushing to one of his cheap binders. He carefully scooped up the demonstration bug, Edgar, and placed him back on his platform. Jan found herself amused at the contrast between the Dr. Pym's size and the tiny, precise movements he made when touching the wasp. She then realized that he must have a delicate touch, as he definitely couldn't afford an assistant to help him attach the finely made wire backpack in the first place. 

Pym's binders were as shoddy and poorly presented as the rest of his booth and personal appearance, so it was lucky for him that Jan was only interested in their contents. His purely theoretical proposals to work on developing various artificial intelligences bored her, they seemed indistinguishable from the dozens of others she'd seen at the exhibition. He had some vague theory about matter conversion, but the diagrams of an apple being shrunk down by what looked like fairy dust made the entire concept laughable. The work he had done with insects was what caught her eye. There were photographs of a dragonfly's wing kept alive by grafting it onto a beetle, and a proposal about controlling ant pheromones that he laughably pitched as being useful for humane pest control. 

Apparently, Jan could think of a great many more uses for his inventions than he could, so she decided right on the spot to forget Richards and give all of Dr. Pym's plans the full financial backing of Van Dyne Industries. She knew she wouldn't regret the decision, because she had excellent taste.

**Author's Note:**

> http://ibionics.ece.ncsu.edu/assets/EMBC_12.pdf – remote control cockroach


End file.
